Should I use a recruiter to get a job in Korea?

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What do recruiters do?

Recruiters act as a liaison between you and employers in South Korea. They can help you get job interviews, negotiate your contract and remind you which documents you need for your visa.

Why are there so many negative things about recruiters online?

Recruiters tend to get a bad rap on forums like Dave’s ESL Cafe. There are a few reasons for this—some good, some bad. Many of the vitriolic posts you can find truly reflect  a poster’s bad experience with a certain recruiter. However, at lot of this animosity is either directed towards specific recruiters who can simply be avoided, or predates the recent rise of small, honest recruiting firms.

Who do recruiters work for?

Most recruiters handle hiring for a number of hagwons and/or public school agencies. Some, such as Aclipse Recruiting, work only for one large employer but this is the exception. When it comes down to it, recruiters work for schools, not for job candidates. So, what does this mean for you?

  • You should never have to pay a recruiter
  • It is not a recruiter’s responsibility to fill a position, not to find YOU a job
  • You are ultimately responsible for researching your employer and inspecting your contract before taking a job

Remember, however, that as a qualified and enthusiastic job candidate, you are a recruiter’s most valuable commodity.

How do recruiters get paid?

Recruiters are paid when they successfully fill a position for an employer. An important thing to note is that employers and recruiters vary in their definitions of “success.” Some recruiters get paid in full when you sign a contract. Others are compensated only if and when you complete your contract, with an extra bonus if you extend for another year.

Should I work with a recruiter?

We recommend developing relationships with a couple of good recruiters at the beginning of your job hunt. Today, there are dozens of reputable, honest recruiters who can help you find a job. Many of these were English teachers in Korea themselves and can give you valuable advice and answer your questions about the process. However, there are also a number of recruiters whose only priority is filling positions as quickly as possible, regardless of the job’s quality. You can get a good feel for your recruiter by asking some direct answers off the bat:

  • What kind if salary can I expect?
  • Which areas of Korea do you have positions in?
  • What is the earliest you can find me a job?
  • How does the job market look? What are my chances of getting a good job?

What we don’t recommend is handing your job hunt over completely to one or more recruiters. Recruiters are just one avenue of finding a job in Korea. If you’re not sure what the other avenues are, we’ve broken down the ways to find jobs in Korea another post.

Can I use more than one recruiter?

Absolutely. You can almost think of recruiters as HR consultants for Korean schools. You wouldn’t stop applying for jobs just because you’d built a relationship with one HR rep, right? However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when using more than one recruiter:

  1. Duplicate Applications. There have been reports in the past of SMOE, the agency in charge of hiring for public schools in Seoul, throwing out applications they had received from more than one recruiter.  Since spring 2010, however, hiring for Seoul public schools has been taken over by EPIK and we have not been able to determine if the duplicate application penalty still applies. Nonetheless, you can play it safe by making sure that only one recruiter handles your EPIK application. Simply tell the others that you are already in the process of filing an application with EPIK.
  2. Be a Top Priority. If a recruiter gets the impression that you are likely to take a job at any time through another agency, he or she is less likely to make you a high-priority candidate. Ditto if you are slow responding to emails or requests for interviews and seem confused about which recruiter you are speaking with. Working with multiple recruiters requires a little more organization to make sure you are on the ball and responsive with each.